VALLEY CITY – The VCSU volleyball team came out on top in a five-set battle against Mayville State Wednesday night at the Bubble, 25-9, 23-25, 25-19, 17-25 and 17-15.
 
VCSU posted a season-high 13 blocks on the night, including 11 blocks from senior Morgan Nelson (1 solo, 10 assisted). Nelson's 11 blocks Wednesday ties the single-game block record set in 2018 by Clarissa Olson (2 solo and 9 assisted) in a five-set match against Bellevue.
 
After VCSU handily took the first set 25-9, Mayville stepped it up to take the Vikings all the way to a fifth set. The Comets held off VCSU's match-point twice in a row to tie the fifth set at 14-14. The NSAA foes then traded points, but the Vikings finished the match with kills from Morgan Freije and Emma Lucas to secure the home win.
 
VCSU improves to 10-5 on the season and 2-1 in the North Star. Mayville drops to 7-6 overall and 1-2 in conference play.
 
The Vikings stormed out to a 25-9 win in the first set after putting together a .424 hitting percentage in the first set. From there, Mayville challenged the Vikings' serve receive with seven aces in set two – including four from Claire Bjorenby – to secure the set 25-23.
 
In set three, VCSU took six straight points to pull away with a 20-15 advantage, including a block from Morgan Nelson and Emma Lucas, that would help propel the Vikings to a 25-19 win.
 
Mayville then posted its best set of the night, tallying 15 kills on a .294 attack percentage to take a 25-17 win in the fourth set. The Comets finished with five of the final six points of the set, including a pair of Desidy Schwanke kills.
 
Then, VCSU built a 7-4 lead in the fifth set with the help of a four-point run. After a Comet timeout, an Abby Cox kill sparked a 5-1 rally to take over a 10-8 lead. From then on, the Vikings and Comets held five ties down the stretch until VCSU's Freije and Lucas found back-to-back kills to finish the set 17-15.
 
Morgan Nelson finished with a career-best 11 blocks Wednesday (1 solo, 10 assisted) to lead the Vikings. She also posted a season-high 14 kills while hitting .500 percent for VCSU. Macy Fridgen totaled 15 kills on the night while Rosie Anderson added a career-best 12 kills and Freije posted 11.
 
Sadie Hansen recorded a pair of season-highs Wednesday, posting 55 set assists and 19 digs for the Vikings. Delani Clarke added 19 digs while Ellie Rush tallied 12 and Reagan Bogenreif added 11.
 
The Comets were led by Samantha Passa who recorded 20 kills and 18 digs Wednesday. Lindsey Nyhagen totaled 30 set assists and Noelle Erickson totaled 24. Bjorenby and Danica Hanson each recorded four service aces for Mayville State.
 
UP NEXT: VCSU travels to Dakota State on Wednesday, Oct. 2 for a 7 p.m. game.